Female artists compose new songs with Aspazija’s poetry on “Pretējības”

Egils Kaljo | March 23, 2016

In honor of Latvian poet Aspazija’s 150th birthday in 2015, a project to compose new songs with her poetry was initiated by the University of Latvia radio station Naba. The result, a collection of fifteen songs performed by women and groups led by women is called Pretējības, and was published by NABA Music/Melo Records.

Gathering a wide variety of female artists, the eclectic collection features performers like Sus Dungo, Alise Joste, Zāle, among many others. The album art is provided by Alisa Ādamsone.

Radio Naba was founded in 2002 at the University of Latvia as a free format radio station, and can also be streamed online.

Egils Kaljo is an American-born Latvian from the New York area who lives in Rīga, Latvia. When not working in the information technology field, he sings in the Latvian Academy of Culture mixed choir Sõla, does occasional translation work, and has been known to sing and play guitar at the Folkklubs Ala Pagrabs in Old Rīga. Kaljo began listening to Latvian music as soon as he was able to put a record on a record player, and still has old Bellacord 78 rpm records lying around somewhere.